Is It Bright Where You Are
by Rhino7
Summary: When the Heartless consumed Radiant Garden, Tifa isn't sure how she escaped...or if she really did at all. Hints of CloTi


**Is It Bright Where You Are**

**By Rhino7**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters, or storyline. This oneshot is mine, as is the bartender.**

**So, I was re-reading my older oneshot **_**Whence We Came**_**, which is about how the Restoration Committee escaped the Heartless Invasion ten years before the events of Kingdom Hearts. And I got this plot bunny…Where exactly was Tifa during that time? I mean, we hear some mish mash about what happened to Cloud, but Tifa just sort of appears out of nowhere in Kingdom Hearts II. And as determined as she is, there's no way it would take her that long to find Cloud.**

**Thus, this thing was born. It's got a few pokes toward **_**Whence We Came**_**, but they're both independent works. The title comes from the lyrics for "The Beginning is the End is the Beginning" by Smashing Pumpkins, which was my musical muse for this thing. Now ownership or affiliation! The badassery of that song is way above my paygrade.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy, and I hope that at least most of it makes sense. Constructive criticism welcome and appreciated!**

**..:-X-:..**

The sky looked different.

It wasn't the kind of difference that one could put a name to. It looked…bigger…sort of…and deeper…and the color of it was…suddenly so much…more…

Smoke was encroaching on the sky, a mix of gray and black on the bigger, deeper blue. With it came the smell of burning. Everything was burning. Homes, cars, papers, and flesh. It was a thick, overpowering smell that pressed into the air, like a poison. Suffocating. It smelled like death and the dying.

All of the sound had been sucked out of the world. Like a slow, trudging drone, the only audible noise was the throbbing pulse of one's ears, damaged by the explosions and battered by the blood. The screams were slow and slurred, and the cacophony of collapsing buildings could only be sensed through the tremor in the ground.

Tears of pain made the smoke and sky slur together, and Tifa gasped, blinking a few times to clear her vision. Her chest felt tight and she could barely move…and she was terrified to find out why that was.

They had come in droves. Black creatures out of a purple smoke, with milky white eyes that had no soul in them. Their origin, where they had come from, was a mystery, but their nature had been soon displayed. The peaceful towns of Radiant Garden had had no time to react as the black cloud of darkness fell on them.

The beasts moved soundlessly, not even could their breathing be heard. They were like ghosts…or demons…either way, their claws and their fangs and their magic had swarmed over the townspeople like the Plague. The people were defenseless. Helpless.

Parts of the building were still crumbling around her. Tifa's breathing hitched at the pressure over her ribs and she whimpered, trying once more to move. Only breath-stilling pain was awarded her for her efforts and she fell still again. Her arms were free, that much she could tell, but everything from the ribs down was immobile and painful.

The soundlessness of the monsters had soon been combated by the gunfire, cannonfire, and sword clashes as the townspeople rallied. The stronger ones tried to put up a defense as the less strong ones tried to keep the weaker ones safe. Tifa had hastily joined her father and her friends in the skirmish. He hadn't taught her martial arts for nothing…though it had been mostly because her closest friends were guys…not to fend off this…this alien attack.

Tifa swallowed hard, her mouth dry. Lifting her head off the cracked pavement, she looked down at herself for the first time since waking up. Somewhere amidst the fighting, as her fists and feet made hard packing impacts on the thick, scaly flesh of the dark ones, she had been physically picked up and hurled through the brick wall of the local bank.

Then all went black until now.

Two of the massive rafter beams in the bank's ceiling had fallen across her lower body, pinning her legs and hips in place. Most of the ceiling had collapsed, and she could see the bigger, deeper, smoky sky above her as she was trapped under the solid steel.

Her legs were broken. There was no guessing that. Her hips…something was wrong with her hips. Maybe they were broken too…or dislocated…or both. Either way, it hurt. She frantically looked around for…for what? For something to lever under the beams? She was in no position or condition to garner that kind of strength…but what else could she do?

Lying here and dying was not acceptable.

Underneath her, she could feel the ground trembling. It had been trembling since she woke up, and it had been trembling before then too. Like the vibrations of a giant's footsteps, never getting closer, but never going away. A succession of earthquakes, one right after the other, going against the drum of her heart and making her nauseas.

Something was moving in the sky.

Tifa slumped back to the ground and stared helplessly up at it.

A lone, white streak was ascending through the blue, like a jet or a rocket…She watched it go higher…piercing into the sky like it was trying to escape. Maybe it was…Yes, it was a ship. If she squinted, she could just make out the wings. It was a ship…fighting to leave…leave the world? Space travel…it had never been successfully attempted…but still attempted many times.

Maybe…maybe this time…

She lifted one shaky arm, stretching her fingers toward the escaping ship. Explosions and other chaotic noises were dully punching through her blown eardrums, making her quiver. Through the tears and the fear, she could just make out the title on the bottom of the craft.

SHERA.

"Take me….take me with you…" She whispered, or screamed, she couldn't tell which. "Please…come back…"

Shera rose to no such request…and soon it had stretched too far for her to make out properly. It, like everything else that was safe and familiar, was just gone. Those creatures had robbed her of everything…Her throat constricted and her shoulders trembled. Despair began to lap over her like salt waves.

This was it then. No, she didn't want this…She didn't deserve this…

Her arm fell back to her side, against the broken ground.

A shadow moved sharply just at the edge of her sight and she turned her head involuntarily. There, not ten feet away, was one of them. One of those horrid, expressionless creatures of the darkness that had laid waste to her home. Killed her family. Attacked her friends. Destroyed her world. And now it had come for her.

Tifa gritted her teeth, her chest heaving as panic and rage filled her. "Wh-what do you w-want?" She growled, her voice clawing out of her throat like broken glass.

The twitching, unnatural thing crept closer, and a coldness began to seep into Tifa's body. Not even her body. It was as though an icy hand had reached into her soul and tried to grab her heart. She tried to move away, but the pain in her lower body paralyzed her. With a gasp, she began to hyperventilate, trapped and unable to do anything.

As if released from an invisible leash, the creature lunged at her, all claws and milky eyes. Tifa yelped and turned as much of her face away as possible, bracing herself for the cold of those claws in her skin.

Instead, with an inhuman screech, the dark one exploded, and the purple mist in its wake lit across Tifa's left side like a light rain. She looked back, wide eyed, at the empty spot where just seconds ago the thing had been. Hardly able to breathe, she scanned as much of her surroundings as she could access with her eyes.

"Tifa!"

The voice had to fight through her throbbing pulse, the background explosions, and the blood of her eardrums to reach her. In the time it took for her to recognize his voice, three more of those dark monsters had appeared, launching themselves at her.

Just as before, they disappeared in purple and black carnage before they could reach her…only this time, she heard the gunfire reports, reverberating through the damaged bank. Still breathing hard, she looked back at the empty space just as Cloud reached her, gun in hand.

He landed hard on his knees from running to her. Tifa nearly dissolved into hysterics in relief, not only in seeing him, but in seeing him alive and in one piece. His ears were bleeding like hers, and she could see burns and bruises rising all over him, but he was alive, he was okay. Thank God, he was alive.

"Tifa…Tifa, look at me." He cupped her face in both hands, trying to get her eyes to focus on his eyes.

"Cloud…" Tifa croaked out, lifting one hand and grabbing his elbow. "Y-you're here."

"Yeah…of course I'm here." He forced a brief smile before scanning her condition.

"The others…"

"Dead." He grunted, shifting sideways and gripping one of the rafters. "Everybody's dead…at least everybody I've seen…"

Emotion swelled in Tifa's throat, but she choked it back, "Aerith—"

Cloud gritted his teeth as he tried to move one of the steel beams trapping Tifa's legs. "She's…all right." He heaved again, "With…Highwind, the mechanic, you remember him?"

"Cid…" Tifa fought to get her breathing under control. "He's—"

"There's a ship." Cloud replied, changing position so that he was pushing against the beam rather than pulling on it. "He thinks it'll get us out of here."

"Ship…" She repeated weakly.

"Hey—" Cloud moved away from the beam and back into her direct line of sight, "Don't—Tifa, stay awake." He tapped her cheek. "Stay with me. I'm going to get you out of this and then we'll find Cid and that ship and Aerith and—"

"They left already." She whimpered. "I…I saw a ship…Shera…"

Cloud's face went slightly pale, but he just studied her face for a moment and then went back to trying to move the beam. "No…you just thought you saw it…Even if you did—we'll find a way out of this…I'll find a way out of this, you hear me?"

Tifa nodded weakly, but didn't have the energy to hold back the tears now. "What's happening, Cloud?"

"The world is dying." He groaned out, suddenly moving as the beam gave.

Pain rattled up Tifa's nerves and she cried out, but he took advantage of the slack and moved the rafter off of her thighs, shoving it harmlessly to the side. He paused for a moment, out of breath from the effort. From this angle, she could see that he was bleeding near the base of his neck, hit from behind by something.

"Dying?" She choked, pushing up on one elbow shakily. "How is that possible?"

"Those…those things…They're evil, I think." He coughed once and started trying to move the other beam that was across one of her knees. "I don't know how or why, but they're doing this, somehow."

The other rafter came away easier than the first, and as bloodflow returned to Tifa's battered legs, a new level of pain signals reached her brain. She went rigid and bit her lips hard, trying to contain the agony.

"Okay…okay." Cloud wiped his bloodied hands off on his pants and moved back over to her. "Easy." He deftly moved his hands under her back, down her neck and spine, to make sure her spinal column wasn't shattered.

Tifa's vision began to tunnel and her hand grabbed blindly for him. Her fingers found part of his shirt and gripped hard. "Cloud…"

"I'm right here." He grabbed the hand, "I'm not going anywhere. It's okay…I'll…I'll fix this. Just stay with me, okay? I'll fix this."

He looked so much older than 17 in that moment that Tifa almost believed his words. But the reality of it was that he couldn't fix this. She was broken, maybe dying, and if the world was already dying…and Cid had already left…then…

"I'm scared." She whimpered, and she hated that, but there was no taking it back. "Cloud, I'm scared."

Cloud exhaled and pursed his lips, trying so hard not to look like he was terrified too. He had always been a terrible liar; it was part of what she had come to love about him. He was stubborn too, so she knew he'd never admit to being scared.

"Come on." He grunted after a moment, "Let's get out of here."

As she lifted her arms around his neck, he slid one arm under her back, lifting her upper half off the ground. She only barely cleared the concrete when pain made her scream. It was like knives were burrowing deep into her pelvis.

"Stop, stop, please!" She begged, shaking all over.

"Sorry, easy." He said in a hurried mess, lowering her back down. "What hurts?"

"L-egs…hips…I think they're—" Tifa gasped for breath.

His eyes darted to her hips and she knew in that fraction of a second that she was in trouble. They had grown up together, been through a lot together. She knew that look in his eyes now wasn't good.

"Cloud—"

"It's not bad."

"Cloud, please—"

"I'll carry you." He said, looking back at her face. "It'll hurt, but I'll carry you."

Tears swelled afresh in her eyes at the thought of the pain again, but there was no other way. She steeled herself and nodded her head three times fiercely. He nodded once and lifted her shoulders again. She grabbed fistfuls of his shirt and tried to bury her screams into his shoulder as the pain returned double.

Through the fire drilling into her bones, she could feel him shaking against her. Her screams were hurting him too. She desperately tried to choke them back, but it was beyond her control. She was screaming apologies now…curses and apologies and just raw screaming.

Cloud had just moved his other arm under her knees when she reached her limit.

"Oh God, stop—please—please—Cloud—" She gasped, breathing so heavily that her lungs threatened to catch fire.

"Tifa, we have to go—" He cut off abruptly.

She pried her clenched eyes open and looked up at him. He was staring south, out of the gaping hole in the building. Before she could get her breath back to form a question, she registered what he had already noticed.

The trembling, which had been uneven and chaotic from the attacks and the explosions, had suddenly and fluidly meshed into one, deep, reverberating quake that felt as though it was quickly and powerfully getting closer.

"What—what is it?" She gasped.

His throat bobbed once and then he looked away from whatever he had seen, back to her situation. "We have to go now."

"What is it?"

"Bear with me—"

"Cloud, what is happening?" She demanded.

He lifted her shoulders once again. "They've destroyed the dam. The reservoir is collapsing into the town."

"The water—"

"It's going to completely destroy what's left—So we need to not be here." He abruptly scooped her legs off the ground.

Tifa's head dropped back and she screamed like an animal that needed to be put down. The lower half of her should just be amputated! It hurt too much. There was no way she wasn't dying! She almost found herself begging to die…but she couldn't beg to die…not yet…

"Cloud—please—"

"It's a tidal wave, Tifa. I can't just—"

"Wait…" Her voice came out soft, broken.

He paused and looked down at her. "Tifa…"

She looked up at him and tried to keep her voice even. "You can't fix this. You can't fix me." She swallowed hard and removed her fist from his shirt, placing her hand against his jaw. "It's okay."

Damn his eyes, she couldn't hold herself together when he was looking at her like that! This was hard enough as it was, and he was…he was killing her inside!

"Go." She choked out.

"What?" He exhaled heavily.

"Go now."

"Tifa—"

"Find Aerith and the others, if they haven't left—" Tifa cut off as the tears came.

She was going to die. She hated it, but she had to accept that.

But she could NOT accept Cloud dying too. Not here. Not for her.

"No." He said, then more loudly. "No."

"Please, Cloud, just go—"

"No, I won't."

"Cloud—"

"I'll carry you. I can knock you out and carry you."

"It's too late. You're wasting time…I'll slow you down—"

"You won't—"

"Dammit, Cloud—Please…"

"NO!" He snapped.

The groan of the wave was coming closer, deeper, bigger. The concrete under her quivered and her bones joined it in trembling, but for a different reason. She didn't want this. She didn't want any of it. What had Radiant Garden done to deserve this evil? She hated it.

"I'm not leaving you here." Cloud abruptly sat down beside her, staring at her fiercely, with those blue eyes that she could deny nothing to. "If you stay here, then I stay here."

Her tears flowed in earnest now, now that the truth of it was clear. They were both going to die then. There was no stopping or changing that now. Well, if there was anybody in the world that she wanted with her when she…when this happened…it was him.

"Thank you." She whispered brokenly.

The roar of the water, the fire, the monsters, and the chaos all threaded into a bloody tapestry of the darkness of Radiant Garden. Tifa had always been unsure how she felt about the existence of God, one or many. She had always found the concept of faith beautiful, but the way people put such stock in an unseen entity…It almost seemed too easy.

At the moment, however, she found the idea of God to be both reassuring and endlessly frustrating. Why was this happening? If there was a God, why had He allowed this? She didn't deserve this. Cloud didn't deserve this. They were still teenagers, kids…what right did those monsters have to invade their home?

A surprising majority of her, however, found a sudden solace. If she was going to die, she didn't want the last moments of her time alive to be of hating a God that may or may not exist. Anger, injustice, sorrow: they were hollow emotions that she didn't want to feel right now. She wanted to feel something warm and safe before it happened.

The ground began to buckle, whether from the dark ones' efforts or the oncoming wave, she couldn't tell. Maybe, if there was a God, then there was a heaven. A real heaven, not that nonsense with harps and pearly gates…but a real, solid place…Maybe if…when she died…it wasn't just the end of everything.

She had to take comfort in that.

"Promise me something." She choked out.

Cracks began to break through the concrete around them, shuffling the fallen debris.

"Anything." He said quietly, eyes on her, away from the oncoming wave.

"Always—" She paused, swallowed as the jostling flared up the pain, and rephrased, "Don't lose your light."

His eyes flashed, but from what, she didn't have time to figure out.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"I promise." He grasped her shoulder with one hand.

It was coming closer…Any second now…

"Cloud—"

"Yeah?"

"I lo—"

Tifa's world went black.

**..:-X-:..**

_Sudden weightlessness._

…

_A gust of violent wind as the sounds of buckling concrete roared._

…

_Heat searing across naked skin, like a fiery tongue._

…

_Hundreds of screaming throats falling simultaneously silent._

…

_An aroma of something sweet, like freshly baked cookies or that brand barbecue sauce that her father favored so much._

…

_Pressure, like a small child, sitting on her chest._

…

_An explosion of light, like a perpetual blast of lightning, nearly blinding._

…

_A warm sensation like a blanket around her body, like a cocoon._

…

_Cold._

…

_Solid ground._

…

…_Cloud…_

**..:-X-:..**

Wood paneled ceiling.

It came into focus slowly, like a camera in sudden sunlight. Tifa found herself staring up at the long, flat panels. They were unpainted, and if she tried, she could almost smell the raw wooden aroma of it. The rest of her senses followed.

She was laying on her back on a soft surface…a bed? Her entire body ached, but she didn't feel wounded. It felt more like she hadn't moved in days. A damp cloth was draped across her forehead, and a threadbare blanket had been placed over her. Her throat was dry, and she felt weak.

For one terrifying second, her memory was blank. Then she remembered.

Panic riddled down her spine as she remembered the sky, the smoke, the black creatures, the fire, the pain, the milky white eyes, the blue eyes…Cloud…

A low groan fought through her sandpaper throat and she closed her eyes again. Just as abruptly, she turned her head to the side, opening her eyes and looking around frantically. The cloth slipped to the pillow under her head.

Her eyes adjusted to the dimly lit room, taking in the bare furnishings of the place. Wooden floors, white walls, a few wooden chairs and a dresser, a table…no Cloud. He wasn't here. He was gone—no, not gone, just not here…Where was 'here'?

Maybe they had escaped. It was a nightmare. It hadn't really happened. But this wasn't her room…What was going on?

"Welcome back to the land of the living."

The throaty, female voice nearly made Tifa cry out in surprise. It took a panic-ridden moment to find the origin of the voice.

A curvy, middle aged woman with wild dark hair was sitting at the table, not ten feet away from Tifa. She smiled when Tifa looked at her, revealing a noticeable gap between her top front teeth.

"I was starting to worry that you'd never wake up…like that Aurora—Briar Rose—whatever she calls herself." The woman said, standing out of her chair and crossing over to her.

Tifa stared, dumb. "Where—"

"This is Traverse Town, honey." The woman said, picking up the head cloth and setting it on the side table. "You've been unconscious since we found you last week."

Last…last WEEK?

Tifa's eyes widened and she started to sit up. "Where's—"

"Easy, easy, take it easy, there." She picked up a glass of water. "You've been through a lot. Here, drink some of this."

After verifying that it was water, Tifa shakily took the glass and drank a few sips. She had never heard of 'Traverse Town' before…No such place existed back home.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"Just a local bartender." The woman smiled, "I found you in an alley behind my tavern. You were a mess, hon, but a few elixirs and you mended up real nice."

Elixirs? What in the world was this strange woman talking about?

She remembered her hip and leg injuries and sat up on her elbows. Fighting a wave of vertigo, she looked down at herself. Her legs were still there, but that was all she could gauge by the blanket over them. She tugged the material aside and looked again. Fair skin greeted her. No bumps, bruises, breaks, or other garish injuries that she had surely sustained in the invasion.

Her wounds were just…gone. Like magic.

And something else was different.

"A week?" She stammered, looking at her knees, her hands, her torso.

"Well, six days, exactly, but no big difference…What's wrong?"

Tifa barely heard the woman as she studied her own body. Why did she look so different? Sure, she was in different clothes…but more than that it was…She was just different. How was that possible?

"Hm," the woman was tapping her chin, "It is strange. There's been no report of a new world falling to the Heartless in the past two weeks…Although…word on the grapevine is that the Hollow Bastion world heart was unlocked last week…about the same time you were found…Where are you from, sweetie?"

Heartless, world, Hollow Bastion, found, grapevine…

"What?" Tifa winced at the alien terms.

"Your home world. What's it called? I could ask around to see if any of your kin ended up here as well."

That was a ridiculous question. How would she not—

Wait…

"I don't know." Tifa whispered in disbelief. "I can't remember what it is…was called."

The woman made a noise of understanding and touched her shoulder. "It's all right, hon. These details are foggy right after it happens."

"And what exactly happened?" Tifa looked at her, desperate for answers that made sense. "Where is this 'Traverse Town'? If I'm not on my 'home world', then where is it? Why am I here? What were those nasty black creatures? How did—"

"One at a time, kiddo." The woman lifted a hand. "One at a time."

Tifa swallowed a knot of frustration at her forgetfulness and brought a hand to her forehead, trying to sort through the mush of her brain. "What's the date?" She finally asked.

The woman answered and Tifa looked up. "Come again?"

The reply was repeated and Tifa shook her head, "That's not—that doesn't make any sense." She looked at her open palm. "That means I've been—but—"

"What is it?"

"The last thing I remember is the invasion…which, according to the date you've just told me, was almost ten years ago." She looked to the woman, "But that's not possible."

The woman looked startled, but touched her chin thoughtfully, "Nothing is impossible: if I've learned anything, I've learned that much." She stood from her seat, "Are you hungry? A week or ten years, either way, it's too long to go without eating—"

"Cloud." Tifa looked up from her hands. "Was I—was I alone?"

"I'm sorry, honey…Yes, you were." She said, pouring two cups of steaming tea. "Now, why don't you let me help you clean up, change into some fresh clothes, and get something to eat…We've got a lot to talk about."

**..:-X-:..**

"But what does this Keyblade have to do with restoring the worlds?" Tifa asked, several hours later.

Both she and the bartender were sitting at the scrubbed wooden table. The tiny apartment, she knew now, connected directly to the second floor of the tavern that the woman ran in Traverse Town. She could vaguely hear karaoke through the floor.

"I don't pretend to understand." The woman shook her head, flipping through an address book that looked older than Tifa…since she was apparently 26 now…

Ten years of her life were just gone. She couldn't wrap her mind around it. Where had she been? How had that happened? Where were the others? Were there others? Had they survived? For that matter, was she just hallucinating all of this?

"All I know is that about the time when that kid unlocked the heart of Hollow Bastion and defeated Ansem in Kingdom Hearts itself, reports have been flooding in about the stars returning to the sky…Worlds regenerating." The woman made slow mirroring hand motions.

Tifa stopped her knee from jumping for the fifth time in the past hour. "So…when the Heartless take people's hearts, they go to Kingdom Hearts…When the Heartless take down an entire world, the heart of the world goes there too?" She rubbed her temples. "This is too much."

"I know, sweetie." The woman reached out and rubbed her forearm. "This regeneration will probably make it easier…to find your folks."

"How?" Tifa looked up, face still in her hands. "It's been ten…I wouldn't know where to start."

"Start at Hollow Bastion." The woman replied matter-of-factly. "Nothing hits the wires that the folks there don't already know. "Word is they're already beginning to restore it to its former glory…And let me tell you, they've got their work cut out for them."

"Who?" Tifa sat up a little straighter.

It didn't matter who, she realized. She knew no one, besides this middle aged bartender, who had been more than hospitable already.

"A group of survivors, like the rest of us." She answered. "They pretty much made Traverse Town their home base for several years after their world was taken." She paused. "About ten years ago, actually." She sat forward in her chair and Tifa involuntarily leaned back. "You might know 'em."

Tifa was too desensitized to allow herself hope at that moment, but her breath was bated anyway. "Who are they?"

"Well, the guy at the heart of it all is a young man about your age—" She started with a chuckle, "Poor thing has the soul of a 40 year old, has ever since I've known him."

Tifa's insides churned. Maybe it wasn't a completely lost cause—

"I know I've got his number here somewhere." She said, thumbing through that tattered address book more fervently. "He and that old pilot told me to hand the number out to every refugee who checked in at my place…I should have it memorized by now—Ah, here we are." She pulled the paper out with a flourish and squinted at it. "Guh, Cid's handwriting is worse than a monkey's, I swear."

Cid…?

"His name's Leon." The woman chirped, handing the paper to Tifa. "There's about four or five of 'em really holding Hollow Bastion together, but if you're looking for somebody and Leon's ever heard or seen the name, he's your man."

Tifa's shoulders deflated as she took the paper, "Thank you."

"You all right?"

"I just…For a minute there, you could have been talking about the person I'm looking for." She slowly folded the paper and slipped it into her pocket. "But this—How, uh, how do I go about…getting to Hollow Bastion?"

The phone began to ring and the bartender stood, crossing over to answer it. "Most people travel by Gummi Ship now, there's a hangar just around the corner from here. I can hook you up." She picked up the phone. "Hello?"

Tifa stood, stretching and still trying to adjust to how different her body felt. Ten years, huh…The jury was still out on what she thought of THAT.

"Yuffie, I told you, you've been blacklisted!" The woman snapped into the phone, sounding like a mother scolding a child. "Nononono, I don't care. I was at your sixteenth birthday two years ago. So unless I disappeared for a few years—" She paused and cast Tifa an apologetic look, "—Honey, Cid and Aerith have enough troubles with you sober. I doubt underage drinking will do you any good, or them any good."

Cid? Aerith? And wasn't that crazy little girl in the rich district named Yuffie? The one who was convinced she was some elite ninja? Tifa tilted her head, intentionally eavesdropping.

"…So if you're not hiding anything, why are you whispering?" The woman went on. "Look, I don't have time for this right now…Oh no, it's not for Aerith, she doesn't drink…Cid always comes for his liquor personally—" A blushing smile touched her lips, "—Leon? Lord help us all if he gets drunk…No…NO that wasn't an IDEA!"

Tifa heard the dial tone and the bartender hung up the phone.

"Sorry about that—"

"Are those the people on this…restoring group?" Tifa asked.

The woman looked up, "Oh, please don't judge them all on Yuffie's testimony. That girl's got a few wires loose." She twirled one finger around her ear. "But, yes, essentially."

"Cid, Aerith, Yuffie, and Leon…right?" Tifa stood, feeling suddenly anxious.

"Yes." The woman said, slowly. "I don't start my shift for another hour. I don't want to rush you—Lord knows you need a moment to breathe—but if you wanted me to fly you over there, to see for yourself, then maybe—"

"Yes." Tifa nodded furiously. "As soon as possible, please."

The woman looked surprised, and then sympathetic. "I hope the best for you, hon, you know that, but the hope that this person—this Cloud—is going to just be waiting for you in Hollow Baston…after all these years…I mean—Leon's been looking for Rinoa for nearly—"

"Well, this Leon person sounds like a workaholic." Tifa waved a hand, "I'll find Cloud. I have to."

The woman wouldn't question her on that. She just nodded her head, picked up her keys, and looked back to Tifa. "No time to waste then."

Tifa tried not to look too hard at the alien and unfamiliar world of Traverse Town as the woman who had saved her life led her across two districts to a large cavern the size of an airplane hangar…but those were the strangest airplanes that she had ever seen.

She had no idea where she had been for the past ten years…Though if Kingdom Hearts opened when her home was destroyed, and it unlocked again when this Keybearer defeated Samson or whatever his name was…Then wasn't it possible that maybe she had…just been trapped inside?

No matter how hard she focused, she couldn't remember anything after the tidal wave, the pain in her lower body, the smoke, and Cloud's eyes, trying so hard not to look as scared as she was.

A surge of desperation built up in her. The woman had told her strong hearts faired better against the Heartless than most. If she had survived, then Cloud definitely had. He was too stubborn to do otherwise. He was out there, somewhere, and she would find him. No matter how long it took.

He needed her, just like she needed him. She knew him better than anyone else…even Aerith. She swallowed compulsively as the woman instructed her into climbing into the Gummi Ship. And because she knew him better than anyone else alive, she knew what he had been through, the demons he constantly fought, the darkness and the light that constantly persecuted him.

Even though it had been ten years, maybe, when she found him, she would find him intact. She could only hope the darkness hadn't swallowed him whole. Maybe, wherever he was, he was surrounded by light. If not…well…she'd just have to turn on the lights for him.

"Next stop, Hollow Bastion."


End file.
